Saturday, May 18, 2019
Apache Woman (1955)
A government agent is sent to a western town to investigate attacks that the townspeople say are being committed by rampaging Apaches.
Mildly entertaining low-budget Western with an anti-racist message and a bumpy plot.
Halliwell (no star): "Routine Western, to which Corman added a subplot about racial prejudice, which may have improved its liberal credentials but does little for it as a movie."
Maltin BOMB: "Sometimes hilariously bad, but mostly a bore."
New York
Garment workers protesting outside Webster Hall, 11th Street between 3rd and 4th Avenues, circa 1915
Friday, May 17, 2019
Todake no kyôdai (1941)
When the patriarch of the Toda family suddenly dies, his widow discovers that he has left her with nothing but debt and married children who are unwilling to support her--except for her most thoughtful son, just returned from China.
Mildly satirical family drama with a large, capable ensemble and staged in Ozu's typically well-balanced style.
Thursday, May 16, 2019
The Beast with a Million Eyes (1955)
A dysfunctional family operating an isolated date farm in the California desert is threatened by the arrival of an extra-terrestrial.
Extremely low-budget sci-fi horror with some risible 'shock' moments and working mostly on creepy atmosphere takes way too long to give the audience a short glimpse of its truly ridiculous alien.
Halliwell (no star): "Semi-professional would-be horror story, on a level with the Corman horrors of the period."
Maltin**: "Imaginative though poorly executed sci-fi melodrama..."
Psychotronic/Michael Weldon: "...this is an effective little science-fiction movie... "
Five Guns West (1955)
Five criminals are recruited by the Confederacy for a dangerous mission in exchange for a pardon.
Standard Western with an unusual plot and Dorothy Malone as one tough gal.
Halliwell (no star): "Western trial run for The Dirty Dozen; cheapjack actioner, quite tolerable for its kind."
Maltin**: "Fair Corman Western..."
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
First Lines: Octavia E Butler - Parable of the Talents
I have read that the period of upheaval that journalists have begun to refer to as "the Apocalypse" or more commonly, more bitterly, "the Pox" lasted from 2015 through 2030 - a decade and a half of chaos.
